VIEWPOINT: Trip to Jefferson County Courthouse with MS an unpleasant one

View full sizeWaiting in line for car tags at the Jefferson County Courthouse has become an all-too-common experience since the countyâs financial troubles began. (The Birmingham News/Tamika Moore)

I drove into downtown Birmingham in rush-hour traffic, pulled into a parking lot and took a ticket from a machine. After I parked my car in a space for handicapped drivers, I lifted a walker out of the back seat, placed it in front of me and headed for the Jefferson County Courthouse.

I have been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, which has weakened the muscles on my right side and causes me to become fatigued easily. I trip and fall if I am not careful. I drive with a left-foot accelerator pedal and walk with a cane. I chose a walker for my trip to the courthouse because I knew I would need it for all of the walking and standing in line.

The last time I was at the courthouse, I found it difficult to walk up the outside stairs to the main entrance. When I got to the top, a guard suggested that the next time I come to the courthouse I park in a lot across the street and enter through an elevated walkway.

That's what I was doing, but it wasn't easy. I went through a door, walked down two or three steps, and took an elevator up to the next floor, where I waited at the handicapped entrance for a guard to let me into the walkway. I went through a security checkpoint, walked down the hallway into the courthouse and got on another elevator.

When the elevator doors opened, I saw the entrance to the Revenue Department to my right. To my left was a line of unhappy people sitting on church pews. The line continued down the hall and out the back door. Everyone in line was waiting to get car tags or transfer car titles. I already felt tired, but I made myself walk down the hall, where I saw other people in line using canes, walkers and wheelchairs.

I asked myself if the people who worked at the courthouse wondered if disabled people found the situation difficult at best. Did they see elderly people in line and wonder if they had health problems that made the situation worse?

A guard directed me past a security checkpoint and outside a door to the end of the line. I explained that I had already gone through security, but he told me I had come in the wrong entrance earlier that morning and that the end of the line was outside. I went down a ramp into Linn Park and walked the length of a reflecting pool before reaching my destination.

I spent the morning standing in the cold wind, leaning on my walker as the line crept forward. My legs ached, and my hands became numb with cold. After two hours, I was allowed back into the building and went through the second security checkpoint. My legs felt weak, so I leaned against the wall. When I reached the first church pew and sat down on the hard, wooden bench, it felt like the softest seat in town.

It was mid-afternoon when I got into the office and took care of my business. I had been in line for six hours and could barely walk out of the building. Although my legs felt like lead and my back hurt, I got in an elevator, walked down a hall to an elevated walkway past a security checkpoint, got in a second elevator, walked up two or three steps, went out a door and into the parking lot, and got in my car.

I looked in my wallet and found $7, which seemed like enough money to pay for parking. As I left the lot, I handed the ticket to a woman in a booth. She put the ticket in the machine, looked up at me and said, "Twenty-one dollars." When I was able to close my mouth and open it again, I asked, "Do you take checks?"